Named "Best of the Best from the University Presses" for 2007 by
the American Library AssociationWeddings today are a $70-billion
business, yet no one has explained how the industry has become such
a significant component of the American economy. In "Brides, Inc.,"
Vicki Howard goes behind the scenes of the various firms
involved--from jewelers to caterers--to explore the origins of the
lavish American wedding, demonstrating the important role
commercial interests have played in shaping traditions most of us
take for granted.Howard reveals how many of our customs and wedding
rituals were the product of sophisticated advertising campaigns,
merchandising promotions, and entrepreneurial innovations. Tracing
the rise of the wedding industry from the 1920s through the 1950s,
the author explains that retailers, bridal consultants, etiquette
writers, caterers, and many others invented traditions--from the
diamond engagement ring and double-ring ceremony to the gift
registry to the package-deal catered affair. These businesses and
entrepreneurs, many of them women, transformed wedding culture and
set the stage for today's multibillion-dollar industry.The wedding
industry began to take shape between the 1920s and the 1950s.
Bridal magazine editors and etiquette writers, jewelers, department
store window display artists, bridal consultants, fashion
designers, and caterers invented new consumer rites and promoted
higher standards of wedding consumption. Claiming ties with
"ancient customs" and various historical periods, the wedding
industry promoted new goods and services as timeless and
unchanging. It introduced new ring customs and wedding apparel
fashions, and "modern" services, such as gift registries that
rationalized gift customs, bridal salons that saved time and made
wedding planning more efficient, and wedding packages that
standardized ceremonies and reception celebrations.During World War
II, the traditional white wedding grew even more prevalent as
jewelers and bridal gown manufacturers successfully sought
exemptions from wartime restrictions, linking the diamond
engagement ring, the double-ring ceremony, and the formal white
wedding gown with democracy and American prosperity. By the 1950s,
the wedding industry had made the formal white wedding tradition a
part of a new cult of marriage and the modern American
Dream.Entertaining and informative, "Brides, Inc." reveals the
origins and development of this most exemplary American enterprise
and brings the story up to the present with a discussion of such
new phenomena as David's Bridal and the gay wedding industry.
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